Vehicle-mounted distillation apparatus for peppermint hay



July 29, 1947. l A c. HERMo ETAL Juy 29, 1947. c. E. HERMO ETAL 2,424,824

VEHICLE-MOUNTED, DISTILLATION APPARATUS FOR PEPPERMINT HAY 5v Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 7, 1944 Patented `Iuly 29, 1947 VEHICLE-MOUNTED DISTILLATION APPA- RATUS FOR PEPPERMINT HAY Carl E. Hermo, Quincy, and William H. Haupert, Portland, Oreg.

Application February 7, 1944, Serial No. 521,362

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates generally to the extraction of peppermint oil and particularly to an apparatus for processing peppermint hay.

The main object of this invention is to construct an apparatus by which peppermint oil can be extracted from peppermint hay.

The second object is to construct an apparatus by means of which peppermint hay can be processed with a minimum amount of labor and wastage.

The third object is to construct an apparatus by means of which the usual processing vats are eliminated and the extracting is performed on the hay carriers thereby eliminating the labor of unloading hay from the vehicle into the vat and the reloading of the processed hay on to the vat, as well as to save a substantial amount of time in the operation.

These and other objects are accomplished in the manner set forth in the following specification and as illustrated in the drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a Vertical section through the apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken along theline 2 2 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken along the line 3--3 in Fig. 1.

Similar numbers of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Referring in detail to the drawing, there is shown the chassis Il) of a land traveling vehicle (preferably motorized) whose wheels II are connected to the chassis I by means of the springs l2. Across the chassis I0 is a deck I3, the boards of which are loosely fitted and perforated with holes I3-a to permit the passage of steam therethrough. Under the deck I3 is a steam chest I 4 to which steam is admitted during the processing by means of the pipe I5 which is coupled to a convenient source of supply at the processing point. Bafiles I6 causes the steam to travel across the entire area of the deck I3. The top of the chest I is provided with perforations IS-b which registers with the holes I3-a.

Around the deck I3 is formed a moat I'I which is kept filled with water. At the forward end of the deck I3 is formed a head board I8, and along the sides of the deck I3 are formed a somewhat lower side wall I9 which connects with a still lower rear wall 20 making an enclosed area into which the peppermint hay is piled by the loader in the field. It is to prevent an interference with this loader that the side walls I9 are cut away along the lines 2 I.

Associated with the vehicle, but independent thereof, is a hood or steam dome consisting of the side walls 22, the head end wall 23 and the rear end wall 24, all of which merge into and are hermetically sealed to the arched top 25.

'The lower edges of the sides 22, 23, and Zll, are

free on the bottom 26 of the moat I'I. Communicating with the interior of the hood and extending through the top 25 is the main exhaust pipe 2l preferably provided with a damper 28 under the control of a hand lever 23. The eX- haust pipe 2l normally connects with the still as does the usual vat commonly employed in peppermint operations.

The Small outlet pipes 39 extend from the endsV of the hood to the main outlet pipe 2l in order to more uniformly exhaust the vapors from the hood. A girder 3l is secured across the angle iron ribs 32 which reinforce the structure and the girder 3| affords a means by which the sling lines 33 may be attached to a convenient lifting boom (not shown).

In the description of this apparatus no attempt is made to show all of the details of construction since these may obviously be varied materially without departing from the spirit of the invention. The underlying thought being the processing of the hay on the rack without disturbing it, making it unnecessary to handle the hay after it has been placed on the rack by the loader until it is desired to unload it from the rack on to the eld where it is used as a fertilizer.

That is eliminating the moving of the hay from f the rack into the vat and the pressing of the hay within the vat by manpower and finally the removal of the processed hay from the vat on to the rack.

We claim:

In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a land traveling vehicle having a flat deck provided with a water containing moat disposed around the periphery thereof, the inner edges of said moat having upright walls formed thereon and a dome removably placed over said vehicle in a manner to enclose said walls and having its lower edge extending into 3 said moat, together with means for supplying Number steam to the underside of the vehicle deck and 802,882 for exhausting volatiles from the top of said dome. 878,785 CARL E. HERMO. 786,144

WILLIAM H. HAUPERT. 5 1,190,006 1,496,392 REFERENCES CITED 1,373,702 The following references are of record in the Re- 3:612 le of this patent: lo UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Numbery Name,V VDate A 248,582

'742,351 Pittman Oct. 27, 1903 Name Date Piver Oct. 24, 1905 Dungan Feb. 11, 1908 Palmer Mar. 28, 1905 Ralliff July 4, 1916 Todd June 3, 1924 Barr Apr, 5, 1921 Van Martel' Aug. 17, 1869 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Italy May 22, 1926 

